Читать книгу Deadline Istanbul (The Elizabeth Darcy Series) - Peggy Hanson - Страница 30

CHAPTER 26

The call to prayer seemed to him, as it would later to me, addressed to the “mute, blind, and deaf houses falling here in silence and solitude.”

Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul, Memories and the City

In Üsküdar along the Asian side and down a few villages from Ҫengelköy, Erol Metin was back in his cell-like room, thinking. The meeting had consisted of an inspirational talk from Hamdi about the past glories of the Ottoman Empire and the need for a Pan-Turkic Empire today. This time, Hamdi emphasized, the Turks would not turn themselves into a multicultural hodgepodge in which they played a relatively minor role. You could hardly tell Ottoman Istanbul from the capitals of Europe! Or even China.

Thus, the invidious influence of modern-day intellectuals drawing from global philosophies had to be stopped. Foreigners became suspect.

Islam could be one tool in the Wolves’ playbook. People liked to think of themselves as religious. You could play on their sympathies that way.

Another tool, regrettably, would have to be the violence they had been experimenting with. Hamdi had gestured sadly as he announced this.

And the tools for violence required money. Lots of money. The Silver Wolves had some irons in that fire, too. Drugs, arms. Trade in anything was acceptable in order to carry out their objectives.

Erol hated some of the tasks they were asking him to do. He sighed. What would this do to his sister, Leila?